Mogami Kyouko (16) was scared to death. That day, also fondly remembered as 'the day the great Tsuruga Ren snapped' in the years to come, had started out a rather normal day.
"It's today isn't it?"
"Do you think I'd get his signature?"
"It would be my first time seeing him in person!"
The studio seemed to buzz alive that morning, and Kyouko couldn't help but feel the same. Her senpai will be arriving in a few hours and she will be acting opposite of him soon! She couldn't keep the smile off her face. Though he'll be very disappointed at me once he finds out that I haven't figured out my character yet. She bent down in gloom and began tracing some random pattern using her finger.
But he might be able to give some advise!, Kyouko brightened up, …probably after he had flayed me alive. She shuddered in fear of the reappearance of the demon king.
The director raised an eyebrow and wondered at her sanity.
If there was one person who did not pay attention to any of Kyouko's quick shifting mood that would be Honami Makino, who were already used to Kyouko's antics from Box-R and who just very recently joined the set as Furukawa Kyouko's best friend. Honami trod on. "Kyouko-chan, you must be very excited! I heard you and Tsuruga-san are very close friends."
Very close friends! Kyouko panicked. It must be because of her reckless choice of word at the interview! What if all of them presume that the great Tsuruga-san was her close friend? Kyouko lamented her dire mistake and grasped Honami's hands as if her life depended on them.
"Honami-san, how can I, a mere kohai, ever hope to aspire such place of equality?"
"Um- Kyouko-chan?"
Kyouko proceeded to remedy the misconception in a great tirade of kohai modesties, of lethal living weapon aimed at females, and of demon killing auras. "….He is the great, no, the greatest actor of all Japan, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie!" Kyouko finished her tirade in one breath.
"I- I understand, you guys are not friends. Senpai and kohai." Kyouko could be so much like Mio sometimes, it scared the hell out of Honami.
"Exactly!"
"So it's true then, you guys are not going out? Not even close?" Yasu chimed in. "Well, you did deny it, but I heard from Momose-san it could be cover-ups."
"No, we are NOT!"
"Senpai and kohai."
"Exactly!"
"So it's true then, you guys are not going out? Not even close?"
"No, we are NOT!"
Stumbling upon such conversation, Yashiro was not sure if he should really step in. He slowly stole a look at his charge's reaction. Ren's face was an unreadable mask as always, but having been Ren's manager for years, Yashiro knew better.
Indeed, something inside of Ren snapped. After all this time Ren thought that at least Kyouko would think of him as a friend, and a little hopefully, as a man. Heck, they had lived together for quite awhile during their time as Heels siblings. She even had left (or attempted to leave) a hickey on him, Kyoko, the queen of modesties! That had got to mean something. To hear all that passionately denounced to the simple status of a senpai yet again, Ren started to wonder if that status was ever going to change. Was that all he was worth in Kyouko's heart? A distant senpai?
"Ee~h?" Ren tried to maintain his persona and smiled, but felt bitterness slipped out of his mouth.
Yikes! What a nasty tone! Yashiro's gut was screaming 'run!'.
"Tsu-tsuruga-san!"
She may have called him Tsuruga-san, but there wasn't much of the gentlemanly Tsuruga-san left in him. Kyouko mechanically turned to the glorious brightness that was Ren's prickly gentlemanly smile. Kyouko demons awakened, smelling the sweet aroma of anger emitting from her senpai.
"Mogami-san, it's good to see you again." Ren turned to address Yasu and Honami and smiled apologetically. "Sorry for butting into the conversation, Yasu-san, Honami-san, but I can't help but overhear my name being mentioned a lot."
Honami blushed and Yasu shifted awkwardly at being caught gossiping.
"Hm-?" Ren prompted one more time.
"Ts-tsuruga-san, you're here early!" Kyouko managed to steer the conversation away, from what she didn't know, but she wasn't so suicidal as to entertain the thought. Was it possible that he was mad about her slip at the interview?
"We finished the shoot early because I was looking forward to work on Skip Beat... but I didn't realize the feeling was one-sided, Mogami-san." Ren's voice dropped a couple degrees, freezing the vicinity and panicking general bystanders, who were feeling a huge urge to leave the area.
Yasu was first. "Uh- I think I heard someone calling me."
"M-me too" Honami followed.
As a good manager, Yashiro fought the urge. He got some damage control to work on later, after all, every eyes in the studio was watching the couple closely.
One-sided? Kyouko was not sure she was following and sputtered an articulate "EH—?"
"After all, we were but a senpai and kohai." Ren scathed the words as if it was bile in his mouth but regretted the words as soon as they left him.
No! Kyouko wanted to say, but no words came out of her mouth. She shook her head as if that could made everything that her senpai said untrue. No, that was not what she meant when she said senpai and kohai. He was the great Tsuruga Ren! She was not worthy to be his friend! But the great Tsuruga Ren's face was such a mixture of pain and frustration that her heart squeezed painfully. Tears came out unbidden instead.
Ren turned his face away. He was being childish. Kyouko couldn't have known that he wanted more out of their relationship, even when he didn't have the right to. He never said it; never planned to say it. His wrist throbbed painfully under Rick's watch and self-hatred kicked in almost as strong his own anger. He hated himself all the more for it.
"I— I need to cool my head." Ren left the studio and everyone in the room breathed again.
The studio yet again buzzed alive with speculations of the drama that just enfolded. Ushio Kurosaki watched the whole exchange and couldn't help but be amused. Oho~, he mused, what do we have here? Isn't it real life Furukawa Kyouko and Iwasaki Ken? Seemed like the goddess of luck hadn't left him yet.
